Manufacturing must retrain to stay competitive

The manufacturing and process industry has called on the government to invest directly in retraining its workforce to cope with new technology in order to help pull the sector out of recession and ensure that it remains competitive in world markets.

Proskills, the Sector Skills Council for the industry, has got together with the British Printing Industries Foundation and the Unite union to argue that, unless current skills are updated to cope with changing market requirements, the sector will have trouble in maintaining its reputation for innovation.

Terry Watts, Proskills’ chief executive, said: “With the industry advancing in new technology, and manufacturing showing signs of recovery, we need to be able to support and sustain this growth if the UK is to remain competitive. There is money to be made and saved by investing in skills and new technologies.”

This was because investing in people was a powerful tool in enabling organisations to motivate and retain them, while ensuring that UK business remained at the cutting edge globally, he added.